


What Did I Say About Picking Up Strays

by The_Impavid



Series: Shenanigans [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Cute Miles Morales, May Parker (Spider-Man) Is a Mother Hen, Michelle Jones Is a Good Bro, Ned Leeds Does What He Wants, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Good Bro, Precious Ned Leeds, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, Supportive May Parker (Spider-Man), Sweet Miles Morales, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 23:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21547132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Impavid/pseuds/The_Impavid
Summary: Peter just wanted to pick up some bread and cranberry for Thanksgiving but it turns out he picks up much more for dinnertime.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Flash Thompson, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Miles Morales, Michelle Jones & Miles Morales & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Miles Morales & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Miles Morales, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Flash Thompson
Series: Shenanigans [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1455406
Comments: 5
Kudos: 282





	What Did I Say About Picking Up Strays

Peter Parker really loves Thanksgiving. Usually. This year is a bit sad. This is the first Thanksgiving the Parkers are having without Ben around. It's been over nine months since the incident and they've come a long way since then. May has gotten help from her work friends and from focusing on raising Peter. Peter got help from his new friends and from becoming Spider-Man.

  
Still, this holiday is about family and well, it’s just Peter and May. Despite this Peter gets up extra early this day to get more ingredients for their feast because he does not trust May to make it edible. Sure, Peter isn't an Iron Chef but he can get along well most times if he follows directions. So, he needs to get stuff for a green bean casserole, turkey cranberry sliders, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, and pecan brownies. They look fairly easy.

  
As he starts scoping out the shelves, he runs into two familiar faces, “MJ! Miles! Hey guys!” He greets as they step into the aisle.

  
“Hey Parker, surprised to see you here,” MJ says as she peeks into his basket.

  
“Yeah, I don't trust my aunt cooking on a day like Thanksgiving. Now I gotta get more food as a backup,” Peter chuckles. “What about you guys?”

  
“Oh, our dad is out of town for the week for work, so it’s just the two of us. I was going to grab a few things to make a homemade pumpkin pie.” Just the two of them, huh, that sounds like him and May. That gives him a good idea. “Hey, it's just me and Aunt May, why don't you guys join us?”

  
MJ and Miles share a look. Sibling mind-reading magic or some shit. It's the same thing he and Ned do sometimes.

  
“Yeah, that sounds good. I'll help you cook since I don't think you've made a Thanksgiving dinner before.”

  
Peter shrugs, “I can kind of follow a recipe. As long as it doesn’t involve a grill.”

  
MJ grins slightly, “Let’s go.” She leads the way to the next aisle and Miles slides up to Peter.

  
“Hey, Peter! Did MJ tell you she met Spider-Man a couple of weeks ago?” Miles asks, pulling on Peter’s arm a bit.

  
He smiles, “No, she hasn’t. Why don't you tell me?”

  
“Well, MJ was walking back from your friend Ned’s house and Spider-Man didn’t know MJ can protect herself…”

  
Peter gladly listens to MJ’s little brother as he rambles on about Spider-Man being his favourite superhero and he barely contains a blush. It’s a different kind of praise to hear about his efforts from just a normal person that doesn’t know who he is or he saved. It’s different but a good different.

  
It’s just as they are reaching the checkout that his phone in pocket starts vibrating violently and he leaves MJ & Miles to load the groceries up and he checks who is spamming him. Of course, it’s Ned.

**NEDIFER**   
**(315) XXX-XXXX**

‘but liek they have big spinnig brushes!!! itd b nothing’ **01:34**

 **01:36**

**Thursday, November 24, 2016**

pete! **10:14**

my mom is going to the hospital rn! **10:14**

she cut her hand making dinner **10:15**

dad went with her n nw im all alone **10:15**

Peter inhales sharply as he reads the first few messages. Feeling a faint onslaught of the same dread as he did with Ben. Is she okay? Did this have to do with Thursday morning salsa class?

OHHHH!!!!1!!1 dw its a small cut **10:15**

Anyways i was gonna ask if I could hang wit u and may? **10:15**

Oh! Thank Thor! Peter nearly had a heart attack!

**10:16** yeah dude! im with mj and her brother at stop and shop

Aight i’ll meet u there in a couple mins **10:18**

Peter takes a breath again once he knows that Ned and his family are all good. If something happened then this would be a terrible Thanksgiving, but nope, the Parkers picked up another person.

  
“ _FWEET!_ ” A whistling sound comes from behind Peter and he turns to see MJ & Miles waiting for him with groceries in both hands. MJ tilts her head towards the checkout counter and he rushes to grab the last few bags. “C’mon, Parker,” MJ jokes.

  
“Sorry,” he says quickly and follows them out. He stops before they start walking down the street, “We gotta wait a couple of minutes.”

  
“Why?” Miles chirps.

  
“Our friend, Ned, is going to be meeting up with us and he’s going to have dinner with us too.” He explains and MJ looks confused. “Yeah, his mom got into a little accident and now his parents are busy at the hospital.”

  
“Everything okay?” MJ asks concerned.

  
“I think so? Ned just said she cut her hand, so I don’t think it’ll be that bad.” Peter shrugs. If Mrs Leeds cut her hand off… then Peter’s sure Ned would be with her instead.

  
MJ moves on from that topic and says, “Do you know if Ned can cook well?”

  
Peter laughs, “Better than me and May at least.” Peter thinks back to the time he & Ned tried practising making chocolate soufflés for Mother’s Day with Ben and the whole experience ended with Ben throwing the literal flaming disaster into the bathtub before starting the shower. Still better than May’s cooking in all honesty.

  
Peter knows that May’s distaste in Mr Stark was the only reason she let another human being eat those walnut date loaves. Peter has never admired Mr Stark more than he did when that glorious man actually complimented those monstrosities in front of Aunt May. Eating those loaves is the equivalent of being on fire and just casually taking your time to stop, drop, & roll.

  
“That doesn’t give me much faith in your guys’ cooking.”

  
“That makes two of us.” Peter chuckles as he sees Miles furrow his eyebrows in his direction.

  
Luckily, Peter is saved from Miles’ interrogation as a car abruptly stops next to them, tires screeching. Ned steps out of the car and hands over a few dollars to the driver, “Thank you!” Ned says and shuts the door. “Hey guys,” he greets and immediately takes the grocery bags from Miles.

  
“Hey Ned, you ready to go?” MJ asks.

  
“Yeah,” he shakes the backpack on him, “I’m all set for the night!” Peter cocks his head to the side and he tries to recall at all Ned asking to stay the night.

  
“Nice, let’s go.” MJ starts leading the way to Peter’s apartment and as they go, they have to dodge several fanatic football fans running through the streets. None of the group is really a sports fan, especially for Vikings or Lions, but a lot of New York. Peter just thinks the people will find any excuse to drink, scream, and eat wings.

  
As they are passing through the streets, Ned & Miles have a conversation about that new Disney movie, Moana, coming out yesterday. Apparently, it’s on the to-do list before school starts up again. Peter is off in his own head trying to think of what to do first in the kitchen, and MJ is the first to see him. “Eugene?” She calls out and the rest of the group look as well.

  
Flash is there, jaw clenched and eyes glazed over until they fall on the group and his eyebrows shoot up. “What are you guys doing here?” Flash looks towards Peter.

  
Peter holds up the bags in gesture, “Getting Thanksgiving ingredients.” Flash doesn’t look like he has anything with him and not to mention he looks more sweaty than usual. The way Flash is twitching his fingers anxiously, Flash has either robbed a convenient store, just came back from visiting a prostitute, or just finished running away from something. “You?”

  
Flash hesitates for a second since he’s had a rivalry with Peter since they’ve first met, but after Emma and that band room heart-to-heart, well, Parker is alright. “My parents got a meeting last minute and had to go but I left my laptop in my mom’s car. She drove off and I tried chasing it down, but it’s gone now…” Flash explains with a shrug. He coughs slightly and turns away for a second, “I’m a bit lost now and my phone’s at home.”

  
MJ doesn’t hold back a snicker for that dumb bitch. “Nice job, Eugene.”

  
Looking at how ashamed and low Flash is, Peter knows he’s got to help. He can still hear Uncle Ben say, _“…if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things.”_

  
Ned must’ve seen the look on Peter’s face and knew where he’d take this, so he just rolls his eyes. Peter chuckles lightly, “Hey Flash if you want, you’re welcome to join us.”

  
MJ turns to look at the sticky idiot and gives him a pure ‘bitch wut?’ face.

  
Flash’s head shoots up, dark eyes widen open with all white showing and his mouth slightly agape. “What?”

  
Peter shrugs, doing his best to ignore all the looks he’s getting. “I mean, why not? We got food and I don’t know if you got anywhere else to go…” he trails off.

  
“Oh my fucking god, Pete…” Peter’s ears pick up from his enhanced hearing, but he doubts anybody else heard Ned whispering that lowly.

  
Flash chews his lips for a second before saying, “Yeah, sure.”

  
“Great!” Peter says and starts leading his caravan of rejected kids towards his apartment on 15th Street.

“May, we’re home!” Peter calls out once he opens the front door. He looks around and is grateful that May is a neat freak who needs to keep the apartment pristine clean. Man, imagine inviting rich Flash to his house and there are stacks of dirty dishes littering the countertop.

  
His aunt comes from around the corner and Peter is slightly concerned, but not entirely surprised, as her white sweater has a small scorch mark on the front & the tips of the sleeves. “We?” She sees all the faces, “Oh!” She gives Peter a pleasantly surprised look. “I didn’t know we were expecting guests.” She smiles and goes along with it. “Please, make yourself at home.”

  
May Parker is the best aunt ever!

  
Michelle, Ned, & Peter drop the grocery bags on the floor in front of the sink and then Ned leads the rest of the caravan into their living room. Peter stands off to the side of the kitchen, knowing Aunt May is going to ask. And she does, “Pete, what’s going on?”

  
He sighs and takes a deep breath to explain, “Well, I ran into MJ & her brother when I was getting extra ingredients and found out her dad is out of town. So, I thought it’d be nice for them to have an actual Thanksgiving feast because like everyone deserves one. Then as we were checking out, Ned texted saying that his mom cut her hand and his parents are going to be held up at the hospital for the day. He asked to hang out with us for the day, so I said sure, and apparently, he’s going to be staying the night here. I didn’t know about that until he met up with us and he had his overnight bag with him, but like, we can’t say no? So, we started all walking back here and we ran into Flash whose parents just went out for the day for an emergency meeting. You know what Ben says about being responsible if we’re able to help people and he seemed so sad. I couldn’t just leave him there too! He was lost and he didn’t have his phone, so I thought it’d be best to bring him here.” 

  
May stares at her boy in puzzlement at his long-winded explanation. Like really, he did not take a single breath throughout that whole thing. Is it because of his spider powers? May shakes her head and scrutinises Peter’s pleading face. She sighs and nods her head, “I guess it wouldn’t be very Thanksgiving of us to say no to them. I hope you got enough food for everyone.”

  
Peter’s shoulders sag in relief as May gives in without an argument or disciplining him. “Uh, yeah. Ned & MJ said they’ll help cook too.” Peter gives a shaky smile and bites the inside of his cheek before offering, “If you want, you can watch over Miles while the three of us make dinner.”

  
May laughs, knowing EXACTLY what he was saying. “Alright, I’ll stay out of the kitchen.” She walks out into the living room and Peter starts unloading all the ingredients out on the counter. She sees Flash, walks up to him with her hand out, and greets,” Hi, I’m May Parker, Peter’s aunt.”

  
Flash takes it and gives a charming smile, “Hi ma’am, I’m Eugene Thompson, but most people call me Flash.”

  
Peter absolutely baulks! He did not expect Flash to act like one of the perfect friend assholes who steal parents and is an angel to grown-up people. By the face drop on Ned’s face and the raised eyebrow of MJ, neither did his friends see it.

  
“How polite!” May takes a seat on the sofa next to him. “So, are you in the same class as…” Peter drones them out as he focuses on food. He can get back at Flash later.

  
MJ is putting a family-friendly show on the TV for Miles and Ned comes up to help. Ned comments, “I never thought I’d have Thanksgiving with Flash Thompson.”

  
Peter tries to fight back the heat rising to his cheeks. “Same, but dude, we can’t leave him on the street.”

  
MJ comes up behind him, “He’s not a dog, Webhead. He can handle himself.”

  
“Without a phone?” Peter shakes his head and denying help to someone in need. “Besides, he’s not so bad.” That band room talk with Flash definitely shook him up a bit.

  
“The guy who got everyone to call you Penis Parker isn’t so bad?” MJ raises an accusing eyebrow at him.

  
“Yeah, he seems alright, just... misguided.” He holds her stare and she relaxes his shoulder, taking his word on this. Something has changed between Peter & Flash. MJ can only wonder where this will lead.


End file.
